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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Prior version support and license usage of Autodesk 2012 Suite products

Below you find an explanation to why one user can have multiple licenses of for example AutoCAD checked out from the network license manager. This can be seen in for example JTB FlexReport’s license reports or by checking the status with FlexNet’s lmtools.exe or lmutil.exe commands.

How prior version support affects license usage in Autodesk 2012 Suite products

Issue

You are a Subscription customer who has received a package license for your network Autodesk Suite product and you want to know how prior version support affects license consumption in your pool of available licenses.

Solution

Prior Version Support is a Subscription benefit wherein you can receive a package license that allows you to run the current version of an Autodesk product plus the three previous versions of that same product. Each version you run concurrently consumes a single license from the available pool of licenses.

Example:

You are a Subscription customer and you have received a package license for AutoCAD 2012. This allows you to run AutoCAD 2012, as well as AutoCAD 2011, AutoCAD 2010 and AutoCAD 2009. If you launch AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD 2011 on the same machine at the same time, you will consume two licenses - one for each version of AutoCAD you are running.

In Autodesk Design Suite 2012: running AutoCAD 2012, Mudbox 2012, and Showcase 2012 on the same workstation at the same time, only consumes a single license. This is because they are all from the current year.

2. If the Autodesk Suite product did not exist in the previous year then each prior version of a product that is launched will consume a separate license.

Example:

In Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2012: running AutoCAD 2010 and 3ds Max Design 2010 on the same workstation at the same time, consumes two licenses. If AutoCAD 2012, 2011 and 2010 are run together, three licenses are consumed. This is because 2012 is the first release year of the Infrastructure Design Suite so there is no prior version of this suite.

3. No Autodesk Suites exist prior to the 2011 release year so launching a previous version of all 2010 and 2009 products will consume one license each.

Example:

In Autodesk Design Suite 2012: running AutoCAD 2010, Mudbox 2010, and Showcase 2009 on the same workstation at the same time, consumes three licenses. This is because they are all versions of products that were never included in a Suite for the respective release year.

How is Previous Version support managed for future versions of Suites?

The first version of a Suite manages Previous Version (PV) access by individual products in the Suite. For example:

Not all Previous Version licenses are available after activating an Autodesk Design Suite

Issue

You have purchased and activated one of the Autodesk Design Suites or a product that is also available in an Autodesk Design Suite, e.g., AutoCAD 2011, AutoCAD Architecture 2011, etc. Later, you purchase and activate a different Autodesk Design Suite and notice that you do not have access to all the licenses you expect for the previous versions of the products that are common between those suites.

Example #1:

You purchased and activated five licenses of Autodesk Design Suite Premium 2011 and, on another day, you purchased and activated two licenses of Autodesk Design Suite Advanced 2011. Because you are on Subscription and have previous version support, you expect to have access to seven licenses of AutoCAD 2010-2008 (a common product between the two Suites) however only two licenses are available for these product versions.

Example #2:

You purchased and activated five licenses of AutoCAD 2011 and, on another day, you purchased and activated two licenses of Autodesk Design Suite Advanced 2011. Again, because you are on Subscription, you expect to have access to seven licenses of AutoCAD 2010-2008 (a product that is available in the Suite and as a separately installed product) however only two licenses are available for these product versions.

Note: Previous Version Support is a Subscription benefit that allows you to run the current version of a product plus the three previous versions (if they exist).

Solution

There is a known issue when combining Autodesk Design Suite licenses where the license manager will evaluate the previous product versions that are common between an Autodesk Design Suite and a previously installed product or Suite and provides only the number of licenses for the last Suite that was activated. Using the first example from above, you would have access to all seven licenses of AutoCAD 2011 but only two licenses of AutoCAD 2010-2008. This is because the Suite with two licenses was added at a later date than the Suite with five licenses. If both Suites had been activated on the same day, all seven licenses would be available for the previous product versions.

To resolve this issue you need to obtain a new package license file containing all the licenses (old and new) in a single file, issued on the same day. The issue date can be determined by inspecting your license file and looking for the ISSUED= section in each increment. For example:

Note: This issue does not affect the current version of products that are common between the Autodesk Design Suites (or between an Autodesk Design Suite and an installed product that is common to both); it only affects the previous versions of products that are common between the product installations.

ScenarioYou are an active Subscription Customer and have upgraded to one of Autodesk’s 2012 Design & Creation Suites, and you would like to know what previous versions of Autodesk software may be available to you.

Solution As a Subscription Customer, you can download and activate the latest release, or use previous versions, of eligible Autodesk products. You can activate one release of a product, suite, or the components of a suite, per license, purchased on Subscription.

Generally, if you purchased a license on Subscription for the first release of a Design & Creation Suite, then you can download and activate a previous version of the Autodesk software components within the Suite.

For a listing of previous versions of Autodesk software available to those of you who purchased a license, on Subscription, for one of Design & Creation Suites, see the table below.